Spurs have not been awarded a penalty kick in the PL all season long and have not been given one at home for two years! Once again Bale was scythed down in the box (not the first time) against Southampton and we were given nothing. I can think of other incidents where we have been denied a certain penalty also. Is Bale (and our players) being victimised? Is it just refereeing incompetence or bad luck? To me, it seems Bale in particular (after 1 or 2 dives) has gained an unjust reputation amongst the refereeing association as being a serial diver, hence why he he gets nothing. But it seems because of this, referees are determined to give our whole team nothing. I look at some of the soft penalties other clubs have been awarded this season alone, (Carzorla, Suarez and Walcott to name a few) and it is so frustrating that Spurs are denied time and time again. It is almost a borderline conspiracy in my opinion.
It's not a coincidence we don't get decisions and that our players don't constantly berate the refs and wave cards. However, Clattenburg didn't give us a penalty because he didn't want to give us one, whether he justifies it by Bale's reputation or anyother reason all he needed was an excuse not to give it because it was right under his nose and he saw the foul perfectly clearly. A bit like when he penalised Defoe who was one on one with the 'keeper after the defender missed his header and didn't even appeal for a push in the back, he'll justify it just enough so that you can't prove it wasn't just a poor decision by the ref. I've no doubt other decisions, against proper refs, don't tend to go our way though because we don't surround and hassle the ref like others do, it's easier to book our players for dissent when they do it pretty much on their own and it's easier to shoo them away to because our players respond to being told to go away. I'd rather that than have our players act like spoilt children on the pitch though.
What worries me is that when the day comes that we are finally awarded a penalty, our chances of scoring it are practically nil, because we have no one who is used to taking them.
Did I read somewhere that not a single penalty has been awarded against Manchester United[/B] (home or away) for the entire season todate ?. If true., I think this is an extraordinary statistic, considering the average 'give away' in the Premiership is 4.
I've seen tiny balls of tumbleweed rolling across our penalty spots, they've become isolated, desolate places.
What do Swansea and Spurs have in common, other than being attacking teams that haven't had a pen all year? That they play the intimidation game less often and with less gusto than other teams. The heart of the scam is that refs don't follow the rules. That allows them to make it up as they go along. If they started awarding all the pens the rules specify, it would be much harder for them to show such blatant favoritism. But, yes, we would miss the pen by a mile if we ever got one. They'd pause to provide crash helmets for everyone in Row Z, and then the ball would go flying out of the stadium.
After Basel, think I'd rather steer clear of penalties for the time being anyway! Besides, the penalty spot at White Hart Lane has been removed
Actually I don't think it is extraordinary. If the average is four then there is actually quite a good chance that one team will have conceded zero. That team is very likely to be one of the more successful teams who have better defenders so will be less likely to concede a penalty. Our statistic of not having had one is more extraordinary as we are also one of the better teams so should have more than the average.
He took the last one at WHL. That tells a story itself, doesn't it? I think Adebayor scored our last one in the league in the Foy robbery at Stoke. That was December 2011.
There must be Spurs fans that have never seen us have a penalty outside a shootout. 1.5 is old enough to be a Spurs fan right?
I can't be bothered to check, but it really does seem that we went the entire calendar year of 2012 without getting a penalty in any competition. That can't be right, can it?